OverDrive would like to use cookies to store information on your computer to improve your user experience at our Website. One of the cookies we use is critical for certain aspects of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but this could affect certain features or services of the site. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, click here to see our Privacy Policy.

From one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios—the Academy Award–winning studio behind Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story—comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership for readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Huffington Post

Financial Times

Success

Inc.

Library Journal

"[Creativity, Inc.]just might be the most thoughtful management book ever."—Fast CompanyCreativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and "Braintrust" sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, "an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible." For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his co-founding Pixar in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie's success—and in the thirteen movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on leadership and management philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as:

Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.

If you don't strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.

It's not the manager's job to prevent risks. It's the manager's job to make it safe for others to take them.

The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.

A company's communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.Praise for Creativity, Inc.

"Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success."—Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great"Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. This is a book about breaking it."—Seth Godin

From one of the co-founders of Pixar Animation Studios—the Academy Award–winning studio behind Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story—comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership for readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Huffington Post

Financial Times

Success

Inc.

Library Journal

"[Creativity, Inc.]just might be the most thoughtful management book ever."—Fast CompanyCreativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and "Braintrust" sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, "an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible." For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his co-founding Pixar in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie's success—and in the thirteen movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on leadership and management philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as:

Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.

If you don't strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.

It's not the manager's job to prevent risks. It's the manager's job to make it safe for others to take them.

The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.

A company's communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.Praise for Creativity, Inc.

"Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success."—Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great"Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. This is a book about breaking it."—Seth Godin

Available formats-

Edition-

Subjects-

Languages:-

Copies-

Available:

1

Library copies:

2

0 people waiting per copy

Levels-

ATOS:

Lexile:

Interest Level:

Text Difficulty:

Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.

Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.

Awards-

Excerpts-

From the book

Chapter 1

Animated

For thirteen years we had a table in the large conference room at Pixar that we call West One. Though it was beautiful, I grew to hate this table. It was long and skinny, like one of those things you'd see in a comedy sketch about an old wealthy couple that sits down for dinner—­one person at either end, a candelabra in the middle—­and has to shout to make conversation. The table had been chosen by a designer Steve Jobs liked, and it was elegant, all right—­but it impeded our work.

We'd hold regular meetings about our movies around that table—­thirty of us facing off in two long lines, often with more people seated along the walls—­and everyone was so spread out that it was difficult to communicate. For those unlucky enough to be seated at the far ends, ideas didn't flow because it was nearly impossible to make eye contact without craning your neck. Moreover, because it was important that the director and producer of the film in question be able to hear what everyone was saying, they had to be placed at the center of the table. So did Pixar's creative leaders: John Lasseter, Pixar's creative officer, and me, and a handful of our most experienced directors, producers, and writers. To ensure that these people were always seated together, someone began making place cards. We might as well have been at a formal dinner party.

When it comes to creative inspiration, job titles and hierarchy are meaningless. That's what I believe. But unwittingly, we were allowing this table—­and the resulting place card ritual—­to send a different message. The closer you were seated to the middle of the table, it implied, the more important—­the more central—­you must be. And the farther away, the less likely you were to speak up—­your distance from the heart of the conversation made participating feel intrusive. If the table was crowded, as it often was, still more people would sit in chairs around the edges of the room, creating yet a third tier of participants (those at the center of the table, those at the ends, and those not at the table at all). Without intending to, we'd created an obstacle that discouraged people from jumping in.

Over the course of a decade, we held countless meetings around this table in this way—­completely unaware of how doing so undermined our own core principles. Why were we blind to this? Because the seating arrangements and place cards were designed for the convenience of the leaders, including me. Sincerely believing that we were in an inclusive meeting, we saw nothing amiss because we didn't feel excluded. Those not sitting at the center of the table, meanwhile, saw quite clearly how it established a pecking order but presumed that we—­the leaders—­had intended that outcome. Who were they, then, to complain?

It wasn't until we happened to have a meeting in a smaller room with a square table that John and I realized what was wrong. Sitting around that table, the interplay was better, the exchange of ideas more free-­flowing, the eye contact automatic. Every person there, no matter their job title, felt free to speak up. This was not only what we wanted, it was a fundamental Pixar belief: Unhindered communication was key, no matter what your position. At our long, skinny table, comfortable in our middle seats, we had utterly failed to recognize that we were behaving contrary to that basic tenet. Over time, we'd fallen into a trap. Even though we were conscious that a room's dynamics are critical to any good discussion, even though we believed that we were constantly on the...

About the Author-

Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children.

Amy Wallace is a journalist whose work has appeared in GQ, The New Yorker, Wired, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times Magazine. She currently serves as editor-at-large at Los Angeles Times magazine. Previously, she worked as a reporter and editor at the Los Angeles Times and wrote a monthly column for The New York Times Sunday Business section. She lives in Los Angeles.

Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
"Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest artistic standards is a nice trick--and Pixar, with its creative leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it off. This book should be required reading for any manager."

Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author of Good to Great
"Steve Jobs--not a man inclined to hyperbole when asked about the qualities of others--once described Ed Catmull as 'very wise,' 'very self-aware,' 'really thoughtful,' 'really, really smart,' and possessing 'quiet strength,' all in a single interview. Any reader of Creativity, Inc., Catmull's new book on the art of running creative companies, will have to agree. Catmull, president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, has written what just might be the most thoughtful management book ever."--Fast Company

"It's one thing to be creative; it's entirely another--and much more rare--to build a great and creative culture. Over more than thirty years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of disciplined creativity during setbacks and success. Pixar's unrivaled record, and the joy its films have added to our lives, gives his method the most important validation: It works."

Seth Godin
"Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. This is a book about breaking it."

The New York Times
"What is the secret to making more of the good stuff? Every so often Hollywood embraces a book that it senses might provide the answer. . . . Catmull's book is quickly becoming the latest bible for the show business crowd."

Prof. Gary P. Pisano, Harvard Business School
"The most practical and deep book ever written by a practitioner on the topic of innovation."

Chip Heath, co-author of Switch and Decisive
"Business gurus love to tell stories about Pixar, but this is our first chance to hear the real story from someone who lived it and led it. Everyone interested in managing innovation--or just good managing--needs to read this book."

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A fascinating story about how some very smart people built something that profoundly changed the animation business and, along the way, popular culture . . . [Creativity, Inc.] is a well-told tale, full of detail about an interesting, intricate business. For fans of Pixar films, it's a must-read. For fans of management books, it belongs on the 'value added' shelf."--The Wall Street Journal"Pixar uses technology only as a means to an end; its films are rooted in human concerns, not computer wizardry. The same can be said of Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull's endearingly thoughtful explanation of how the studio he co-founded generated hits such as the Toy Story trilogy, Up and Wall-E. . . . [Catmull] uses Pixar's triumphs and near-disasters to outline a system for managing people in creative businesses--one in which candid criticism is delivered sensitively, while individuality and autonomy are not strangled by a robotic corporate culture."--Financial Times "A wonderful new book . . . Unlike most books written by founders, this isn't some myth-heavy legacy project--it's far closer to a blueprint. Catmull takes us inside the Pixar ecosystem and shows how they build and refine excellence, in revelatory detail. . . . If you do creative work, you should read it, now."--Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code"A superb debut intended for managers in all fields of endeavor . . . He takes readers inside candid discussions and retreats at which participants, assuming the early versions of movies are bad, explore ways to improve them. Unusually rich in ideas, insights and experiences, the book celebrates the benefits of an open, nurturing work environment. An immensely readable and rewarding book that will challenge and inspire readers to make their workplaces hotbeds of creativity."

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Punctuated with surprising tales of how the company's films were dev

Title Information+

Publisher

Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

OverDrive Listen

File size:

362166 KB

ISBN:

9780804127479

Release date:

Apr 08, 2014

OverDrive MP3 Audiobook

File size:

362166 KB

ISBN:

9780804127479

Release date:

Apr 08, 2014

Digital Rights Information+

OverDrive MP3 Audiobook

Burn to CD:

Permitted

Transfer to device:

Permitted

Transfer to Apple® device:

Permitted

Public performance:

Not permitted

File-sharing:

Not permitted

Peer-to-peer usage:

Not permitted

All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.

Sorry, no retailers are currently available to purchase this title. Please check back later.

There are no copies of this issue left to borrow. Please try to borrow this title again when a new issue is released.

| Sign In

You will be prompted to sign into your library account on the next page.

If this is your first time selecting “Send to NOOK,” you will then be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."

The first time you select “Send to NOOK,” you will be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."

You can read periodicals on any NOOK tablet or in the free NOOK reading app for iOS, Android or Windows 8.